Starlit Innocence
by Sakura-Revolution
Summary: Lord Voldemort is heartless right? So then who is this girl and why does he care?


The night was stormy; rain hitting against the windows, like a vengeful spirit demanding the honor that was denied at their death. The moon rose in the sky, its forbidding silver light, illuminating the ground below it to a washed out, unappealing wasteland what in the morning would be a perfectly dazzling landscape. In this night, one sad, silent little girl sat at a window and stared out, wondering if, in some metaphysical way, her father was looking at the same dead crescent moon, the same vengeful storm clouds and the same star choked sky.  
  
She was a very young child, only in her sixth year of life, with dark green eyes, nearly the same color as the black sky that went on forever before her, and long silver hair, as fitting to a moon child as there ever was. She was a lonesome girl, with no one to play with, no one to talk to, and no parents that would be there for her, should she have a nightmare in the midst of the night. She often did, and she would curl herself up, like an infant star that would burst into fiery life. But she would not burst into anything, she would lay there, shivering, crying and wishing that just once, she would be able to hear her father's footsteps in the hallway outside her door, she never did. It was as if no one really cared, which was true on a certain way, but even through the pain, she knew the truth.  
  
There was no way he would ever come, he had never come before, and he would not come now, she had never known him, although she wished she had. Truth is, he had been dead for nine years when she was "born" and maybe he would never be truly alive again. She had those who cared for her, but they did not love her, they were afraid of her maybe... she could sense fear in others, sometimes she wondered if her father, who ever he was, would have even loved her. No one had ever really loved her, sometimes her main caregiver, a tall severe woman name Nari would come into the room and try to comfort her in her bad dreams, she would clutch the woman and start to cry. Soothing words would follow and soon the child was calm again. Nari, maybe Nari loved her. But it was very confusing to try and sort out the woman, she was always fair, she never yelled, but she did not show affections to anyone.  
  
Sometimes this was what made the child wonder if her caregiver was not some illusion.... The strange men would do something like that; they liked making her unhappy. They said it built character. Nari did not like them, so maybe the woman was real after all... shouldn't creations like their makers? Was that also something that the child should do? The child could hear someone in the hall now, soft foot fallings, it was Nari. She opened the door quietly and walked in, her hair, as always, in a high small bun at the back of her head. The child looked at her with dark eyes, she had been crying.  
  
"Are you in need of aid." Nari asked, her voice, tones of wind on steel. It was not truly a question, and was not meant to be answered. Nari knew that the child did not need anything at all. She never did, or at least nothing that Nari could offer. The child just kept looking at her, hoping that Nari would talk to her a little, it was so rare that anyone talked to her any more. Nari stood there for a moment, as if undecided what was the correct thing to do at this point, the child before her was obviously upset but what could be done? Nari took a step forward, hesitated, then walked boldly over to the tiny child.  
  
"Don't be upset, little star child... you have much before you to do very soon, do you know?" Nari murmured, petting the long silver strands out of the little girl's tear streaked face. She was not a cruel woman; a crying child was always in need of comfort, one of the things that this child had never had enough of. "You have a surprise soon.... And not one of those nasty ones that Lucius and his gang keep coming up with, their days of cruelty are soon over, my star child." Nari always called the girl by that "star child" because to be honest, she did not have a name... only a parent could name their child and the girl had no parents. Nari quietly petted the thin back until the girl was near sleep then put her on the bed. Then Nari left for the night.  
  
*  
  
The next morning, the girl woke up to hear a heated argument down below her. She tiptoed over her think carpeting and knelt in one corner, her ear to the floor, listening. It was yelling so she did not have to strain to hear.  
  
"She is only six, but she is his child!" It was Nari's voice, obviously angry because of the slight hint of malice in her voice; the girl smiled to herself, hoping that Nari would slap the other person, anyone who Nari did not like, the child did not like.  
  
"The girl shows no signs of anything, she is not his daughter if she cannot do magic!" The second voice said, it was a cruel voice, full of bad intentions for everyone. The child recognized this one, Lucius Malfoy, not a person that she liked. She shuffled around just a bit so that she could hear well.  
  
"She shows the signs! She is only six after all, how well did Draco do magic when he was but a baby?" Nari challenged, the little girl wondered for a moment if they were going to come up here and see her, but she knew that if they did it would only be to ask her questions, most of which she did not know the answers to. The girl decided to walk down, perhaps that would scare all of them so badly that they would not stay to ask the questions. She stood up and padded down the stairs, as silent as a snake, her only toy, she had many but she hated all of them, in her white arms, an old doll with jet black hair and a carved porcelain face.  
  
She entered the room, unseen by anyone, until Narcissa saw her and gave her a slight smile. She smiled back; Narcissa was not a bad person. Just kind of dumb. The girl quickly took in all of the people, noticing that she did not recognize two, the first a hunched man, missing a hand and in its place was a glimmering one, as pale as the moonlight. The second though was the one that interested her, a tall man with a long black braid and deep crimson eyes. She stood there, looking at everyone until Nari looked around and saw her, no one else had.  
  
"Oh my! What are you doing all the way down here?" Nari said, very surprised indeed to see the child standing there. The girl, who knew that she would need some excuse, help up her doll, one of the bows she had untied herself upstairs. She knew that many children would pretend that their dolls were not good without the perfectly tied bows.... She acted on her instinct at a being a child.  
  
"Okay, come here and I'll fix it." Nari said, but before the girl could, the taller new man had knelt and gently re-tied it. The girl smiled at him, beamingly and then turned to go back to her room, she sensed that something had surprised all of the people back behind her and frankly, this amused her more than anything. She was at the foot of the stairs when Nari called her back.  
  
"My little star child," Nari said, taking the girl's shoulders and turning her towards the tall man. "Meet your father." She finished. Now if the girl had wavered for even a moment, if she had looked surprised or disgusted or afraid, probably she would have died right there, but as it was, the girl was not afraid and acted on instinct, she walked forward and hugged him around the waist, like any child would do. There was a tense moment... then the man's hand went onto her shoulders and Nari breathed out a breath she had been holding.  
  
"A child...." He murmured, then knelt down in front of her, he looked much younger than the other men around and she liked him, this was a child that the best she had ever felt was needing someone, so liking was surprising.  
  
"Does she have a name?" The man said dryly, undoubtedly knowing that she had none, they would not dared to have named her.  
  
"No my Lord." Nari said quietly. Not sounding afraid, just respectful. The man nodded and looked again at the girl. She looked back at him steadily and Nari prayed to whatever deity that watched her that the girl had such a bold personality as to be able to pull this off. She only hoped that the girl would not get weak and start to have to gasp, that could prove to be a bad thing.  
  
"Oh." The tall man said simply, he looked the girl in the face and she smiled at him, amused by some unknown phantom that she seemed to be a friend of. She was smiling so sweetly however that she made her father smile slightly too.  
  
"Her name is Zoe, it fits her perfectly." He said finally, she was still smiling lightly at whatever she had been so deeply amused by. Not laughing, she rarely laughed, just smiling, and at that point, with a sweet smile, a soft hug and an untied doll's bow, she had endeared herself to her father forever. 


End file.
